1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to the field of printing, and more particularly to a simplified mechanism for positioning and moving paper through a serial character printer. In particular, this mechanism is capable of accepting continuous forms and hand and paper tray fed cut sheets of paper alternatively without having to unload and reload the printer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Printers may be classified by the rate and technique used to print on the paper. Of particular interest due to their low cost to both acquire and operate are serial character printers. These printers typically print a single character at a time using an impact, usually a dot matrix impact, ink jet or thermal technique.
These printers have two key subsystems, the paper feed subsystem and the printing mechanism. The essential aspect of such printers being their low cost, attention must be paid to the cost of each subsystem.
Low cost paper feed systems have been developed in the past. However, these prior art systems tend to be optimized for one type of paper, either hand fed sheet or continuous forms. Although these system may be adapted to accept another type of paper, the adapted paper feed system operates with less than optimum performance.
These prior art paper feed systems add motors and solenoids to perform the movement required to handle the new type of paper. Additional motors and solenoids drive up the cost of the printer. Also, they usually require the user to remove and reload the paper each time the type of paper is changed. They also increase the maintenance required to keep the printer operating.